AlanM

BTW, if every new breaker installed for general outlets ends up needing to be AFCI since 2008 NEC I hope they are putting in really tall boxes because those AFCI ones make it impossible to put in breakers in both columns. Unless the new boxes are made much wider, I guess.

I thought the point of a tandem (piggyback) breaker was that you could get two circuits from one slot in the box, which would mean that the two hots would be on the same phase. At least that's how I understood that these worked: http://www.lowes.com...oductId=1111749 How would you get them on different phases? Would you put the tandem breaker in and then move an adjacent hot to one side of the tandem breaker and wire your new circuit with the red and black split between the old breaker and the other side of the new tandem one? I guess that would get them on different phases. You just couldn't put the new black and red both on the same tandem breaker. Also, my box needs a new tank circuit too, but the side with openings has a full neutral bus. The inside of the box is very organized at the moment with nothing crossing the mid-plane when it comes in the top. Is it OK to put a neutral and ground coming in to the left side if the breaker and the hot is coming to the right?

After about a year of reading piles of DIY LED threads on lots of forums I've really come to the conclusion that similar to what Rob (zygote2k) posts, light is light. As long as the Evergrow folks are reporting the wavelength peak of their Bridgelux LEDs accurately, and as long as you can dig up folks that have PAR meters to take detailed measurements like ridetheducati did, everything else is just aesthetics of how the box the LED is in looks, and you can make this light do whatever you want and make your tank look however you want with it. It's so customizable that it's impossible to say how they compare to other lights, because so many have totally different LED configurations in their d120's. There are certain wavelengths that you can put into the tank that will excite certain photosynthesis related pigments. Different corals have different cholorophyll related pigments in different ratios, so you can get pretty scientific about it, but the wavelengths needed are fairly well known. Put a bunch of those onto the corals, but not too much. Put some other colors if you want to see certain things. Make it really blue if that's what you like, or sunlight white if you like that better. Supposedly if the corals are turning brown, then you need more light because they are loading up on zooanthelle (which are apparently brown colored). Supposedly if they're turning white, then you have too much. Other things also affect brown or white turning corals, though, so it's not necessarily the light. Super helpful, I know. Back to the Evergrows... It's unbelievable to me that you can customize these Evergrow lights this much for this price. If I didn't want to play with the dimming electronics it would be a no brainer to me to get them instead of doing my DIY one. They're almost like DIY lights without the DIY and all for a hamburger over $100.

I checked it out too, since I'm at NIST. It sure looked like a refractometer to me as well. I didn't understand the scale hand written on the lid if it was a refractometer, though.

Nice, thanks.

OK. Since you brought up harmonic distortion, and I'm building an LED array with a 48V Meanwell power supply. Would this be one of the cases where Active Power Factor Correction would be desirable in order to reduce harmonic distortion or is PFC a totally separate issue? Folks on the DIY forums at RC and on the lighting forum at nano-reef.com can't quite agree on whether or not paying the premium for a power supply with Active PFC is worth it. (for the record, the one I got has it, just wondering if I could have gotten the $20 cheaper one).

Neat, I like it. I found some website in California that says that they grow them in big shallow pools and toss in salmon chow from time to time and keep the pools covered so that the birds don't get em. It's cool that it ends up that you're actually feeding the copperband and the other fish in the tank paper bags. Passed through bacteria and worm bellies, but still...

I believe 12-3 wire has a white, black, and red with a bare ground wire. 12-2 has white and black with a bare ground. Wonder if the white is a shared neutral between two 20A circuits with separate hots on black and red on the "piggyback" breaker.

If you used a piggyback breaker there were probably no open spots so he took out one 20A breaker and put in a 20A piggyback breaker which is actually two 20A breakers in the space that would normally be used by one of them. Maybe that's where the 40A confusion came in too. Or if there was one open spot and you need two 20A circuits he could put in a piggyback breaker to give you the two 20A circuits (again, the 40A number comes into play) with one slot in the box.

I don't understand that sketch that you posted on your worm growing system. Or I don't think I do. What's happening in the big vessel in the lower tank that catches the water from the upper tank? How are you keeping worms from getting sucked up in your powerhead? Does a teensy jar of carbon up top do anything? I saw references in some of your stuff that it provides a surface for bacteria to grow, but I've never heard of carbon being used that way. Where are the worms living and reproducing in that system, which I assume is fresh water? Do you really just feed the worms flake fish food? My wife is barely on board with a fish tank, but I'm not sure I could talk fast enough to get her to be on board with a worm nursery. The two boys would like it, though.

If it has a ground I think so. You have to consider if you have other outlets downstream of that one in the circuit. If you wire the GFCI one way (with them all on the load side) they will all be protected and will all go dark if something trips it. If you wire it the other way (all on the line side) just the one outlet will be protected and will cause a trip. Others here are better electricians than me, though. I'm a poser. BTW, Coral Hind, you're a good electrician. I just know what Bean's article says. If it's wrong that a GFCI is required with a grounding probe, I'm interested in why.

Example number 2 about two thirds of the way down addresses the reason why. Without a GFCI to detect the imbalance between hot and neutral you can get a lot of current coming from the hot leg, through the water, and out the grounding probe. This current is also flowing through your fish and through your hand if you put it in there.

Paul, can you post some references where we can read some longer form articles from you about your feeding and tank philosophy? I haven't been around long enough to know where to look.

Nice video. I'd just been reading the "Ask Albert Thiel" thread on nano-reef.com and was curious about the worms when I saw your video. Very cool.

So when you did that the control turned on and off? You should be able to get the sensor in the right amount by just plugging a lamp into the controlled outlet and watching it turn on and off rather than letting it operate the pump. Also, the MJ1200 seems like it pumps too fast. How about a much smaller pump from the reservoir and then make the top part of the tube not go below the surface of the water so it won't siphon back after it shuts off.

Btw, dont use a grounding probe by itself. Use one in conjunction with a gfci outlet. http://www.beananimal.com/articles/electricity-for-the-reefer.aspx

I love d2mini's setup that you posted the pics of. I aspire to do that on my RO/DI and SW systems. I think he used these, right? http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=25328 Moniiboy, since you're the group-buy master, I wonder if a group buy from US plastics would net any cheaper shipping. Maybe not because they drop ship? I think I'd like a couple of those 40 gallon applicator tanks, and maybe one of these stock tanks: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23947&catid=957 and a few space saver jugs for dosing chemicals: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=25129&catid=611 and maybe some acrylic sheet to make an overflow box: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23901&catid=442

I don't know how I missed this thread. Amazing stuff going on. That's a big tank. I can't believe after moving yesterday and today you still have energy to mud drywall. He's strong like a bull. He held up one end of that tank while we all picked our nose and wondered how we'd get it around the corners. I highly recommend him for all your large tank moves.

On craigslist you can sometimes find someone who has recently done a shower and can pick up some extra Kerdi membrane. It is coated with a material like Gore-tex which causes the water to bead. You can make a cone out of the stuff with a hole in the bottom and water won't come out because of the surface tension. You put it on the interior of the stand with Versabond, overlap any seams by 2 inches, and it will never leak. Doesn't stink going on either.

haha, did you just call them, Coral Hind? The guy I'm talking to said someone else just called like 5 min ago asking for 1.5" spaflex.

Sweet! I'll give them a call. I like going out by the airpark. Lots of cool stuff out there.

I'd already hit submit when I saw your reply and the submission said it went to the site admin, which I assume is the webmaster, rather than anyone involved in content. Basically I asked them if the authors of http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/10/aafeature could be contacted to do it with corrected math, and I told them that light attenuation in water obeys the Beer-Lambert law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer-Lambert_Law which those guys would need to use to estimate light at depth.

Great to have someone with such a history in the club. I was just going to send in feedback to Advanced Aquarist on their "Light in the Reef Aquarium" article by the Russian guys last year. I really liked the article, but the math is all wrong. Light attenuates exponentially in water, not linearly.

I want to get some 1.5" flexible schedule 40 PVC pipe, normally called spaflex if a local store has it. Lowes near me has 1" spaflex, but that's all. I can order it from flexpvc.com, but it's $30 shipping for the 10 feet I need. Is it available from any fish stores or hardware stores?

I think fish prefer RC Cola. I do. If it doesn't work out and you wanted to go nicer than trash cans you could put your DI and SW in these: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?sku=10402&catid=958